Will the Snow Come and Rid Us of These Pests?

--By Thralin Strongfoot--

Gondamon children have been praying for it, traders, merchants and travelers alike have been dreading it... the inevitable snow blanket that covers most of Ered Luin from mid November to mid March. Yet, it is late. Apart from a few rare flakes that have fallen in Gondamon only Thorin's Hall has really seen any snow these past weeks. As Yule approaches all of us wonder, will we see some snow soon? Or will it be another unusually warm winter.

Experts have blamed exceptional weather conditions in Gondor and beyond for the freak weather patterns we are seeing up here in the North West. Furthermore the warm weather has attracted some strange and dangerous creatures to the Blue Mountains. Only yesterday a scout near Tumunzahar reported seeing a Breeland three-toed skink, a tiny yet venomous snake-like lizard that was last spotted in the Blue Mountains over two hundred years ago.

"Some of these skinks have entered our halls, they are a real pest! One of them bit me and another scared my goat!", said Brolli Thunderhand, smith at Noglond. "What we need is a good blanket of snow and we'll finally be rid of these pests!", he added.